Quebec legend IM Jean Hebert has joined the ranks of the 2009 Canadian Closed and Zonal Championship. Welcome aboard Jean!

In 2007, Jean finished in a four way tie for first before losing a marathon blitz match against Nikolay Noritsyn, who went on to defeat Samsonkin for the title. The same cast of characters has returned this year, along with Bluvshtein and Porper, who together rebuffed some of the world's best in Edmonton. It's shaping up to be a great battle.
This year's champion will be seeded into the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, a knockout style tournament scheduled for late November.

Here is a list of the 24 players to date:

Bluvshtein, GM Mark 2558
Porper, IM Edward 2448
Hansen, FM Eric 2423
Samsonkin, IM Artium 2403
Hebert, IM Jean 2399
Noritsyn, IM Nikolay 2381
Panjwani, FM Raja 2350
Tayar, FM Jonathan 2342
Liv****s, IM Ron 2332
Thavandiran Shiyam 2291
Jiang Louie 2250
Haessel, FM Dale 2204
Yuan, WFM Yuanling 2203
Henry Liam 2186
Arsenault Nicolas 2161
MacKinnon Keith 2148
Me Kevin 2145
Qin Joey 2140
Jung, FM Hans 2132
Hambleton Aman 2052
Martchenko Alex 2039
Humphreys Michael 1999
Vincent Trevor 0
Casareno Erwin 0